With a range of options in terms of both services and pricing, NetHelpNow offers broad flexibility in meeting its customers' needs.

by Jeff Goldman [June 25, 2003]

NetHelpNow was originally founded in 1994 as one of the earliest ISPs in California. Two years later, company president Larry Goldberg sold the ISP and began working with the helpdesk provider KnowledgeBroker. "One of their customers was CompUSA, but they didn't have any expertise in dealing with the Internet or with Macintosh computers," Goldberg said.

Goldberg's company provided KnowledgeBroker with Macintosh and Internet support until late 1996. At that point, KnowledgeBroker took over the North American laptop support for Toshiba—leaving NetHelpNow with the CompUSA contract. "That meant our first contract out the door was with CompUSA," Goldberg said. "It was like getting thrown in the water: We just had to start swimming."

NetHelpNow Voice: (877) 924-1444 info@nethelpnow

In late 1997, CompUSA brought their support in-house, leaving NetHelpNow to reassess its objectives. "We became one of the very first Internet-specific helpdesks designed to outsource tech support for Internet companies," Goldberg said. "We launched our company at the very first ISPCON show, and began selling tech support to ISPs."

A large part of the company's business, Goldberg says, is now focused on hotspots and hotels. "We got a very early contract with a Marriott franchise in the Mid-Atlantic states," he said. "We also work with Choice Hotels International, as well as with some independent installers that are putting both wired and wireless Internet connectivity in hotels."

NetHelpNow also works with about 30 local and regional ISPs, an industry which Goldberg says has changed significantly over the past few years. "They're no longer mom-and-pops like they used to be," he said. "They're serious business people, and they're really looking at the bottom line. They've weathered the shakeout, and they're in it for the long haul."

Full support
NetHelpNow offers telephone, e-mail, and chat support, as well as remote desktop access—but Goldberg says most customers prefer to get help over the phone. "Most of the people that we work with can't get online, they can't get their connection to work right, or they can't get their e-mail," he said. "It doesn't make sense to do e-mail or chat support, because they can't get to that point."

The company's online tracking system, NetHelp Gold, allows ISPs to access instant reports of the number of calls taken, what escalations have taken place, and what the resolutions were. "They can drill down to the individual ticket level; they can even find out who took the call and what they told the customer," Goldberg said.

SLAs are negotiated individually with each client. "The tighter you make an SLA, the more expensive it is to offer; it's really an issue of price," Goldberg said. "Most people want to see 80 percent of the calls answered in three minutes or less, and we generally hit that mark. If somebody needs a call answered in 90 seconds, they're going to pay more for that."

In terms of resolution rates, Goldberg says about 90 percent are resolved on the first call, 5 percent on the second call, and another 5 percent require further escalation. "It really depends on what the customer wants us to do," he said. "We have some customers who don't want us to change passwords, so we have to escalate those calls back to the client. We can do as much or as little as the ISP empowers us to do."

In addition to its ISP support services, NetHelpNow can provide full tech support to an ISP's customers as a value added service. "For a flat fee of $19.95, we can solve virtually any problem for them, 24 hours a day," Goldberg said. "Then we share 10 percent of that fee with the ISP. It's a nice service to be able to offer: full technical support for any kind of computer problem, 24/7."

Pricing options
Pricing is available in several different modes depending on the needs of the ISP. "Most ISPs like per-head pricing, but we also do per-minute and per-incident," Goldberg said. "We prefer not to do per-incident, because that gets to be a problem in that if somebody has to call back two or three times, is that one incident, or is that multiple incidents?"

Per-customer pricing is based on a minimum guarantee per month, with discounts based on volume. "Generally speaking, we're looking at anywhere from a high of about $2.25 per head down to a low of about $1.60 to $1.70 a head, depending on total numbers," Goldberg said. "If we're looking at 10,000 or more users, we can get you a very good price."

Still, per-customer pricing doesn't promise unlimited access. "Nobody really does unlimited pricing any more," Goldberg said. "It's very dangerous, because you can have two ISPs side by side, and they run themselves similarly, but one ISP gets a 20 percent call-in volume and the other one gets 80 percent. So we typically set a cap of 25 percent call-in volume, and anything beyond that goes to per-minute pricing."

Per-minute pricing is also based on volume. "It ranges typically from a high of about $1.00 a minute down to a low of about 65 cents," Goldberg said. "If you get into tens of thousands of minutes, you're looking at 65 cents or so. If you're dealing with just a few thousand minutes, it generally ranges around 75 to 90 cents a minute."

For smaller providers—or just to try out the service—prepaid pricing is also available. "You can prepay for your minutes in packs of 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 minutes, and use them only as you need them," Goldberg said. "It's usually about $1.00 a minute, but the advantage is that there's no monthly minimum, and you can use those minutes any time over a year."

ISP experience
Kat LaRue is the tech support manager for the California-based ISP Pacific Internet, which has been working with NetHelpNow since March of 2000. Outsourcing after-hours support, LaRue says, just made the most sense. "We had to be able to compete with what the national ISPs offered in terms of after-hours support," she said. "Outsourcing was the most cost effective way."

Still, Pacific Internet never disguises the fact that its after-hours support is outsourced: LaRue says it's important that Pacific Internet's customers know when they're speaking to her techs and when they're speaking to NetHelpNow. "Trust is absolutely essential, and we are up front with our customers about who is providing any service we are outsourcing and why," she said.

The support NetHelpNow provides, she says, is a good match. "An outsourced provider whose business model is structured more on a corporate level would not be as good a fit for us," LaRue said. "The NetHelpNow staff also works in a small local market environment, and one that's similar to ours in lifestyle as well. The similarities can't help but be transmitted to the customer."

Chris Mitchell is ISP/IT Manager for Massachusetts' North Attleborough Electric Department. About five years ago, the department began offering Internet access as an additional revenue stream, and chose NetHelpNow to provide technical support to their customers. Mitchell says he shops competitively for services every year, and he's continued to stick with the same support provider.

As a public utility, the department has to be particularly careful about how it chooses to spend its money—and Mitchell says he's been happy with the choice of NetHelpNow. "They're not the least expensive game in town, but when the quality of service and the flexibility that they have is as great as it is, I'm willing to pay a little bit more for markedly superior performance," he said.

— End

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